The overturning of Mount Sinai. (9).

G.  When the Israelites refused to believe the words of Moses after he had returned from the mountain, the Holy One, blessed be He, inverted the mountain above them like a top, and said unto them, “If ye receive the Law, well, but if not, your graves shall be here.”

Lucky and unlucky birthdays.

G.  Rabbi Simon ben Levi said that whoever is born on the first day of the week (Sunday) will be either thoroughly good or thoroughly bad, because on that day light and darkness were created.  If on the second day of the week, he will be stingy, because the waters were divided on that day.  If on the third day, he will be rich and prosperous, because on that day abundant vegetation was created.  If on the fourth day, he will be wise and happy, because on that day the luminaries were fixed.  If on the fifth day, he will be good-natured, because fishes and fowls were then created, and these are fed by God alone.  If on the sixth day, he will be likely to give himself to good works, because that is the Sabbath preparation day.  If, however, he be born on the Sabbath, he will also die on the Sabbath, as a punishment for his desecration of that sacred day by his birth.

2.  TREATISE ON THE PASSOVER (Pesakhin).  No. 3 in order.

M. On the eve of the fourteenth Nisan, search must be made for leaven by the light of a lamp (10).

G. What means the Hebrew word or? (Translated above “on the eve of").  Rabbi Huna says it means, “when the day begins to dawn”:  but according to Rabbi Jehuda it means “at night,” but in Genesis xliv, 3, and 2nd Sam. xxiii, 4, the verb means “to get day, to dawn,” so that Rabbi Huna is right.  Abazi said that no student should enter upon his studies just before the dawn of the fourteenth Nizan, lest he forget to search for leaven.

G. To Amorain (11) propose the following question:  “Suppose a man let a house to another, telling him that he had removed all leaven but subsequently it was found that some leaven had been left.  Is the agreement to take the house binding?” Abazi said, “Yes, it is, for it is better that each householder sees for himself that all leaven has been removed.  Before beginning the search for leaven a blessing must be said, as, indeed, before any religious act is performed.”

By the light of the lamp.

G. The light of the sun or of the moon or of a flame of fire may not be used in searching for leaven, as the Rabbis say is taught in Zephaniah i, 12 (I will search Jerusalem with lights), and Prov. xx, 27 (Man’s soul is Jehovah’s lamp searching the inner chambers of the body.)

3.  TREATISE ON NEW YEAR’S DAY (Rosh Hashshanah).  No. 8 in order.

G. The generation before the flood was punished with boiling water. (12).

4.  TREATISE ON THE ROLL (13) (Megillah). No. 10 in order.